NEWS: U.S. Government funds Viagra for Sex Offenders

A recent audit by the office of Alan Heves shows that 198 convicted sex offenders have been getting Viagra on behalf of Medicaid for the past five
years.

hosted.ap.org
Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the
state's comptroller said Sunday.

Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed
Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

Hevesi asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a letter Sunday to "take immediate action to ensure
that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers."

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The apparent problem is from a 1998 directive that enables Medicaid to include Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medication. The Medicaid list
was then applied to the list of registered sex offenders.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton claims that this mistake is 'deeply disturbing' and that it should be corrected.

Good post. This is really bad. Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem to YANK this support IMMEDIATELY.

Viagra is a prescription drug... Maybe prescriptions for the drug should be unattainable for sex offenders... Weird territory we'd be getting into,
though, since technically if a person has served their time, they deserve a chance at a normal life and maybe that life for sex offenders could
possibly include legitimate and legal sex (as much as I hate to admit stuff like that, I do strive to avoid hypocrisy when it comes to personal
freedoms.)

Wow. I'm not sure how I feel about this but now News-Leader.com has completely changed the story in order to make it seem as if the Feds are trying
to prevent Viagra to convicted sex offenders. Here is the 'revised' story:

Feds Try to Deny Viagara to Sex Offenders
Federal officials are scrambling to find a way to plug a legal loophole that allows convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders to receive
erectile-dysfunction drugs paid for by Medicaid.

The issue was revealed Sunday by the New York state comptroller's office, which said audits covering the period of January 2000 to March 2005 found
198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Their crimes included offenses against children as young as
2 years old, Comptroller Alan Hevesi said.

"Now that this issue has been brought to our attention, we are certainly going to see what we can do administratively, if anything," said Mary Kahn,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. hosted.ap.org...

Sort of correct. The feds (likely not intentionally) have been allowing this to go on since 1998. Now that the NY State Comptroller publicly pointed
out the problem, the feds will have no choice but to join in.

The basic choices HHS faces are either change the process yourself, or the Senators will be proposing legislation to force you to change it.

Either way it's an unacceptable practice that has to stop. We're talking about level 3 sex offenders here, including child rapists. Explain to me
how the hell my taxes go to make sure a child rapist doesn't have ED and can perform for his next rape.

The feds realize there's no arguing against that line of thinking and will fall into place fairly quickly I'm sure.

In another turn of events, the story has once again spun again. This is the new 'revamped' headline and story.

States May Deny Viagra to Sex Offenders
A federal agency has begun notifying all 50 states that they don't have to offer Medicaid-funded Viagra to sex offenders, a step taken after it was
discovered that more than 400 convicted sex offenders in New York and Florida were reimbursed for the erectile dysfunction drug.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acted swiftly Monday, one day after the New York comptroller's office said audits from 2000 through
March found that 198 rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in the state received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions.

Their crimes included offenses against children as young as 2, Comptroller Alan Hevesi said. The report sent the Bush administration scrambling to
find a way to close the loophole.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.